Challenge

For many people with disabilities in Thailand, finding work is shaped less by ability than by access. Travelling to an office can be difficult, while inaccessible workplaces, limited training and employer assumptions narrow the jobs available.

Thai companies with more than 100 employees are required to hire people with disabilities or contribute to a government fund. Yet meeting a quota does not necessarily create meaningful work. Many employers choose the payment, while capable workers remain excluded from stable, skilled careers.

At the same time, artificial intelligence companies need people to label the text, speech and images that teach their systems to recognise patterns. Can Enterprises saw a way to connect these two needs.

Solution

Vcan Enterprises created a remote-work platform through which people with disabilities can train for and complete digital assignments from home. A computer, an internet connection and the right support have opened work to people previously excluded by travel or physical barriers.

The organisation began with 80 AI data trainers. It has since broadened its training into programming, customer service and call-centre work, matching opportunities to different strengths. People with strong listening and communication skills, for example, can prepare for customer-facing roles, while those interested in technology can progress from basic digital training into AI and software work.

Its proprietary Collab platform serves as both an accessible workspace and an AI training environment. Screen-reader compatibility supports workers with visual impairments, while speech-to-text, text-to-speech and image-detection tools make a wider range of tasks accessible.

Workers also label data drawn from Thailand’s regional dialects, helping to address language gaps often overlooked by global technology companies.

Under Vcan’s partnership model, participating companies pay workers directly, at approximately US$3,600 per person annually, as part of fulfilling their disability employment obligations. Vcan then sells AI training data, Thai-language models, accessibility software and technology-enabled services to public- and private-sector clients. The model turns a regulatory obligation into paid digital work with commercial value.

Impact

Between January 2024 and January 2026, Vcan expanded its workforce to more than 3,000 active members across all 77 Thai provinces. Remote delivery means that opportunity is no longer limited to people who can relocate or commute to major cities.

The model has also widened beyond working-age people with disabilities. Vcan’s oldest active AI data trainer is 72, showing how digital work can extend professional participation later in life. Parents and guardians of people with high support needs can also work from home while continuing to provide care.

For participating workers, the income supports greater financial independence and helps families gain stability. For employers, the programme offers a route beyond passive compliance, connecting mandatory expenditure to people who contribute directly to useful products and services.

Future Outlook

Within two years, Vcan aims to grow its workforce to 5,000 people and partner with 50 additional companies. It also plans to expand opportunities for retired people and target a 25 per cent rise in participants’ household income within six months of joining.

By 2030, Vcan wants to engage more than 10,000 workers and take its model into two neighbouring ASEAN countries. A proposed “Vcan Inclusive Standard” certificate would recognise employers using the platform to create work for people with disabilities, older people and rural caregivers.

The long-term vision is an economy in which talent can travel digitally, even when the person behind it cannot.